Checking in.

Just a few photos and a hello.  I know you've all been wondering where I've been.

Whoever said recovery from surgery on your head was easy?
Ack.
The Alleve that the doctors put me on twice a day, to inhibit bone growth, started to have some nasty side effects.  So I emailed my doctor, and he told me to stop it.  So I did.
About a day and a half later, I felt like someone had hit me in the forehead with a baseball bat, complete with nausea.  
At first, of course, I thought the worst.  I worried. Here we go again.

Then my daughter suggested that maybe I was having a 'rebound' headache from taking the Alleve twice a day for 3 and a half weeks.

The overuse or misuse of pain relievers -- exceeding labeling instructions (such as taking the drug three or more days per week) or not following your doctor's advice -- can cause you to "rebound" into another headache.

When the pain medication wears off, you may experience a withdrawal reaction, prompting you to take more medication, which only leads to another headache and the desire to take more medication. And so the cycle continues until you start to suffer from chronic daily headaches with more severe headache pain and more frequent headaches.

Pain reliever overuse appears to interfere with the brain centers that regulate the flow of pain messages to the nerves, worsening headache pain.

The next 48 hours were horrific.  Not just a headache, but a sick headache.  Oh, joy.

But I think it is letting up at last, and I think she was spot on.  Just what I needed, right?

I feel pretty much like a slug.....getting just about nothing done.   I have managed to keep Roy walking though.

The weather has been crazy, cold then wet, then warm, then windy.
With occasional sunshine.

 

 Poor Lois has been holding the fort.  
With not much help from me.

I am hoping this passes quickly, and I can get back to my "old" headache.
There's nothing like the devil you know.

 I read a story today about a young man who fell out of a tree stand, while he was hunting.
He crushed C3,4,5, and was paralyzed from the neck down, on a ventilator.
They extubated him so he could answer their question:  do you want to be on life support, or not.
He didn't.
They left him off the machine, and he died several hours later, with 75 family members and friends in the room, singing to him.

One thing that I have always been terrified of, is being paralyzed.  I would also choose the alternative.

I am glad they gave him the choice, and didn't try to make it for him.
I'm done letting people "inside my head", for real.

This is going to be a table runner, it is much thicker than the towels.

 Here are four more towels off the AVL.  Red.

 Rust.

 Gold.

 Blue.

  Still doing a day at a time.
Dreaming of better days to come.